THE AMAZING DRAG JOURNEYS OF INDIGI-HAUZ QUEENS

Thanks to RuPaul Charles and her Drag Race franchise phenomena, drag performances are enjoying monumental popularity around the Globe. This includes the Yukon, where the Pride Drag Brunch, hosted by Queer Yukon, sold out before Mama Ru could say, “Ladies, start your engines, and may the best Drag Queen win!”

“Especially for Two-Spirit visibility, Indigi-Hauz provides that platform for anyone who is an Indigi-queer performance artist,” said Cedar T. “So we expand beyond just drag queens … We encourage burlesque performers, powwow dance performance artists, and drag kings. So there’s room for everyone. And some of the house members actually do all that.” ish—polished

Misty Luxxx and MayTea are both drag daughters to Cedar T, who mentors them in drag fundamentals such as makeup, hair and fashion.

For those lucky enough to get a ticket, the family-friendly event will feature several Two-Spirit drag queens, including three members of Indigi-Hauz of Beaver Hills, a collective of Indigiqueer performance artists based in Edmonton. Cedar T, MayTea and Misty Luxxx will each bring her own mix of charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent to the brunch.

Out of drag, Cedar T is Kisik Whiskeyjack and the director of Indigi-Hauz, which was recently incorporated as a non-profit society. Culturally and creatively, Cedar T is a drag mother to some of the queens.

“You can definitely expect polish—polished queens,” Cedar T said of her drag family. “My daughters are an extension of my own creativity and art; they’re a reflection of me as an artist.”

As a drag mother, Cedar T also takes representation seriously and is careful to emulate Indigenous femininity in a way that’s acceptable to aunties, kokum (Cree for “grandmothers”), sisters and nieces.

“What I like to try to teach is setting by example, to do so in a respectful way—not to exaggerate in ways that are disrespectful, like oversexualizing.”

The Indigi-Hauz drag queens are relatively new to performing, but each can recall being drawn to drag when they were young.

For example, MayTea remembers that, as a child, she would give lip-sync performances in the basement, with her cousins. Later, in her thirties, she watched RuPaul’s Drag Race, with her mom.

“I always thought to myself, I want to do this. I want to do this.”

When the COVID-19 pan- demic hit, MayTea moved back to her home in the Métis settlement of Buffalo Lake, north of Edmonton. The solitude provided her with an opportunity to dabble with makeup, and she started taking testosterone blockers.

“I’m not sure if I was bored or it was more giving me a sense of having a safe space in order to do this.”

At 43, MayTea may be a latecomer to drag, but she says she’s starting at a time when the community is more accepting of Indigenous drag queens than it was 20 years ago.

“I found that queer spaces in the early 2000s weren’t for